Camino 2013 - Day 19: Burgos To San Bol

We left Burgos in a drizzle.  We stopped in a bakery and picked up a chocolate napoleon for an early breakfast.  As we left town the drizzle slowly passed.  This would not always be the case ... but I get ahead of myself.

After Burgos is the start of the meseta.  The meseta is relatively flat.  Having said this it didn't feel as flat as last time.  I'm not sure how to explain this really.  I'm sure there is some psychological explanation.   The fact that the weather was different and more overcast this time around may be some of it.  Whatever the reason it felt hillier this time.

We stopped in Tardajos and used the internet and got something to drink.  We talked with a young couple from Texas that we'd seen a few times before.  They'd worked on a boat to get to Europe and were an interesting couple.

Why did the crustacean cross the road?

The next town after Tardajos is Hornillos del Camino which some people describe as 'a hole'.  I'd skipped it last time and hadn't missed anything I think.  This time we stopped and I bought a sandwich for lunch.  We sat in a small church square surrounded by hundreds of flies.  It was kind of disgusting.  Eat - swat - drink - swat - swat - swat.  I ate my lunch fast so we could get away from all the swatting.

We passed a few people on the way including E_k who we hadn't seen in a long time (we'd met him way back in Cirauqui).  He was doing well and was walking with a bunch of guys his age.  He seemed like he was enjoying himself.

Approaching the tiny and isolated San Bol albergue.

Our destination of the day was a small albergue called San Bol.  It is situated between Hornillos del Camino and Hontanas where I'd stopped last Camino.  It's located out in the middle of nowhere.  A single building on a small piece of land with trees and a natural, cold, spring.  No town nearby.  The land is surrounded by hay and wheat fields - it looks like an oasis in a desert.

The albergue has twelve beds but they sometimes house more.  When we got there it wasn't open yet.  There were three other people here and we were four and five.   Soon after two of the five moved on - the guy told us he would love to stay here but there was a woman ahead of him that he wanted to catch up to.  We all smiled at that.

The dome covered the albergue's dining room.  I slept on the second floor.

The other man there was from Massachusetts.  V_n turned out to be a nice guy.  We would run into him many times farther ahead and we would even walk with him a couple days on the way to Fisterra.  Others showed up.  M_a and C_m from Canada.  C_e, a Mexican Spanish teacher who lives in Germany, and one of her adult students.  A couple from Denmark, some Germans, and an Aussie named C_i.  In the end we ended up with fourteen people in the small albergue.  The albergues in Hornillos del Camino would fill up completely that night.  I think Hontanas was full too.

The hospitalera drove up just before the opening time posted on the door and let us in.  We all did our chores and sat around outside enjoying the fresh air and the company.  A tent pilgrim showed up and set up camp on the far side of the property.  Camping was not permitted here but he sweet talked the hospitalera and she let him stay.  He was traveling with this little white, cute,  puff ball of a dog (Coco, I think its name was) - this explains why he was camping since albergues do not permit animals.

The natural spring on the property.  The water was very cold.

As the sun started to go down the hospitalera fired up the generator and cooked a large paella meal for us.  The dinner table was a large round table in a small round room.  It made talking to your fellow pilgrims easy.  We went around the table and introduced ourselves and had a great time.  The paella was almost finished by the end of the evening but the young German guy, who had walked the longest distance that day, just couldn't finished the last little bit no matter how much we encouraged him.

We helped clean up after dinner, the hospitalera lit a candle in a lantern, turned off the generator, and said goodbye before she left.  This felt so odd.  I was so used to having supervision or at least the illusion of supervision.

As the sun went down I went outside to see the stars.  I hoped the isolation of San Bol, its distance from any town or city, would yield a brilliant field of stars.  Sadly the drizzle we'd had this morning translated at this later hour as haze and the stars were only barely visible.  A let down.

Most albergues have a curfew.  Albergue doors are often closed and locked by 10:00PM every night.  San Bol, without a hospitalera, had no curfew.  Despite this, and the festive feeling - and wine - some people brought with them, everyone was in bed by 9:00PM.  It was kind of funny really.

San Bol turned out to be a nice place to stop.  It had felt like a long day of walking and I was a bit worried about the rustic-ness of the place but it turned out to be a very comfortable place to stay the night and we met good people that we would encounter the rest of our Camino.  Like Grañon, I would recommend all who can should spend a night at San Bol.  It is a special place.  A oasis in a sea of pilgrims.

Pictures can be found in my 2013 Camino de Santiago Google Photos album.

Total Distance on Day 19: 24 km ( 14.91 Miles) Total Distance Walked: 430 km (267.19 Miles)

Approximate Track of the day's hike.

[Click on map for a larger version]

Camino 2013 - Day 18: Agés To Burgos

When I originally put together the tentative walking itinerary, I'd tried to skip cities like Burgos.  Based on how we felt, the itinerary changed and we ended up stopping in Burgos.  I'm glad we did.  I like Burgos.  It is a nice transition stop between the hilly first third of the Camino and the flatter meseta.

The walk to Burgos was nicer this time around.  I left later this time and there were no clouds and fog to obscure the view once you reached the top of the hill outside of Atapuerca.  It wasn't all good though.  For the past week or so we'd been fighting biting flies and mosquitoes.  This hadn't been a problem last Camino but this time we were constantly swatting at our face and ears.

Top of the last big hill before Burgos and the start of the meseta.

This being our second Camino, we were often asked about the route ahead and, when not asked, we often volunteered our advice anyway.  For the past few days we'd been telling people how to enter Burgos.  There are two ways: The industrial way and the more scenic, but less well marked, park way.  I'd walked the industrial way last time and G_v had walked the scenic route.  We told everyone we met how to take the scenic route.  The industrial ways was miles of factories and commercial supply stores - not very inspiring - and I was looking forward to avoiding it this time.  We reached the place where the two paths split.  G_v looked at the sign and the distances and said "I would never had willingly added distance so this isn't the turn off."  We walked on and before you knew it we were on the industrial way.  While I was mildly disappointed it was also funny that G_v had missed the turn after telling everyone about it.

The Cathedral in Burgos.

Once you pass through the industrial area you enter the old center of town.  I didn't remember a lot of this.  I suspect they rerouted it slightly since the last time making it a more direct route to the albergue and cathedral.  Or maybe my memory just played another trick on me.

We checked into the albergue.  We gave them our credentials but they did not stamp them.  Unfortunately we didn't notice this until many days later.  We would end up missing a few stamps for some odd reason.

I felt like this some days but my knees looked better than this guy's.

After doing out chores we headed out to find a pharmacy.  I had to keep the promise I'd made in Tosantos to have my blister checked out.  I talked to the pharmacist a bit and then pulled off the bandage.  To my and G_v's surprise it didn't look nearly as bad as the day before.  I described how it was being treated and the pharmacist agreed we were doing the right thing.   I bought some more blister treatment materials (gauze pads, iodine, and hypafix [the best medical tape EVER]).  I left the pharmacy feeling much better.

Burgos has some cool statues like this bull in a reflecting pool.

In a better mood, we wandered around the city and played tourist.  I really enjoy Burgos.  I'd spent two days there last time letting my tendinitis heal and I remember it fondly.  We ran into L_a and her sister (we met them in Torres del Rio) and we joined them for a drink.  They were going to meet some people and eat at a rather famous vegetarian restaurant that everyone raves about.  They asked us to join them.

The nice square in Burgos with restaurants, bars, and cafes.

The others arrived, including I_n who we'd met in Torres del Rio as well. They'd checked out the restaurant and found it was closed for vacation.  We were a bit bummed so we headed to the central square and looked around for another place to eat.  Someone suggested pizza and we found a recommended place on a side street off of the square.  We enjoyed a good meal with fun people.

Like last time, Burgos was a place of goodbyes.  L_a and her sister were going home having reached the end of their time.  I_n and a few others were taking the next day off.  G_v and I were going to continue on as were a few other we'd met.  We would meet other pilgrims, of course, but our second little family was breaking up (the first being the people we met on the Aragones).  This was the norm this time: smaller, more ephemeral, families.

I really like Burgos but I really don't like the goodbyes.

Pictures can be found in my 2013 Camino de Santiago Google Photos album.

Total Distance on Day 18: 22 km ( 13.67 Miles) Total Distance Walked: 406 km (252.28 Miles)

Approximate Track of the day's hike.

[Click on map for a larger version]

Camino 2013 - Day 17: Tosantos To Agés

People started to leave Tosantos really early.  I guess everyone else felt just as weirded out as us.  Sadly, there was one more bad thing left to happen.  When the lights were turned on you could see the bugs crawling up the walls - they were bedbugs.

Id both heard the stories of bedbugs on the Camino.  Before I left home I treated my backpack, dry sack, and sleeping bag liner (what I slept in every night) with permethrin, a long lasting insecticide used by campers and hikers.  G_v had done the same.  I ended up with no bites.  G_v was not so lucky and had bites on her arm and face ... parts outside her sleeping liner.  Two other women had bites as well.  I was lucky.  I was sleeping right next to G_v.  I guess she smelled yummier than me.

A sunflower ... with heart.

After evacuating the albergue, and fighting that itchy feeling, we walked on.  I was dreading this day.  Last time I'd struggled crossing the Montes de Oca.  I remember them as unending.  Before we tackled this hilly stretch. we stopped in Villafranca Montes de Oca and ate some breakfast.  We ran into a few pilgrims we hadn't seen since Torres del Rio.  With renewed energy we left town and began climbing the trail.

A message left along the way.

Everyone I'd seen I'd warned about this stretch.   It turned out to be a trick of my memory.  This section wasn't nearly as bad as I remember.  Things were in different order and seemed much shorter than last time.  G_v agreed that it wasn't as bad as last time for her either.  We decided the Camino had been improved along this stretch and possibly re-routed.  It may have also been the nine days of hill climbing on the Aragones that had prepared us better.  This would happen a lot along the way.  Things that were hard before weren't.  Things that were easy ... not so much.

A splash captured in time.

Agés, our stop for the day, is a nice town.  It is obvious that they have geared the place to support pilgrims.  There are good services and the people are friendly to the pilgrims.  We checked into a nice albergue and we threw every piece of clothing except what we were wearing into a hot washer.  We inspected our packs and found no signs of bedbugs.  The itchy feeling started to fade.

I took a nice nap this afternoon.  My naps were not as deep and satisfying as last time.  Not sure why but it might be the fact I wasn't taking as many painkillers.  I still took the naps and they still felt good in the afternoon.  I napped a lot on this Camino.

More of the people we met in Torres del Rio showed up in Agés.  It was nice to see some "old" faces.  Everyone was having a good time it seemed.  An older lady from the Netherlands (I think), who we'd met earlier on the way, was celebrating her 71st birthday.  Sadly she too was suffering from bedbug bites.

The low beams of the albergue.  My head can tell you just how low they were - Ouch!

The albergue was run by a married couple.  The man ran the front office and the wife provided the evening meal. Tonight it was paella and it was delicious.  The owner asked if anyone wanted more.  A pilgrim said he would love a little bit more.  The owner brought in a plate with a tiny little blob of paella.  Strange looks went around and the owner started laughing.  He was such a kidder.  We all got a laugh.  The albergue experience is made or broken by the attitudes of the owners and this guy seemed always happy.

We thanked the wife for the wonderful meal and we went to bed with clean clothes.  The bad memories of Tosantos faded like G_v's itchy bumps ... with time.

Pictures can be found in my 2013 Camino de Santiago Google Photos album.

Total Distance on Day 17: 23 km ( 14.29 Miles) Total Distance Walked: 384 km (238.61 Miles)

Approximate Track of the day's hike.

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Camino 2013 - Day 16: Grañon To Tosantos

Over the past week or so the bottom of my heels had been hurting at the end of the day.  They felt like they had been pounded with a hammer all day.  In Santo Domingo de la Calzada I'd stopped and bought some gel heel pads.  I tried them out on my walk to Tosantos and they helped ... that is when they weren't slipping in my shoe.  They were not a perfect solution but they did help and I would wear them for awhile.

Down turned sunflower fields.

The walk to Tosantos was uneventful.  We wondered at having a playground right outside of a cemetery (cradle to grave, so to speak) in the small village of Viloria de Rioja.  We stopped for breakfast in Belorado and went into the church.

Pilgrim mural in Belorado.

We arrived in Tosantos and checked into the albergue.  The albergue is run by Dominican Monk volunteers.  One has been hospitalero there for twenty years or more and it is his home.  We were checked in with a couple other pilgrims including one that could be considered a professional pilgrim.  Professional pilgrims spend all their time walking back and forth along the Camino.  They tend to be a bit unkept and survive on charity mostly.  He turned out to be a rather nice guy who helped treat other people's feet and blisters.

My heel blister was looking worse (it looked sort of like raw hamburger) though it wasn't stopping me from walking.  I decided when we arrived in Burgos, I would visit a pharmacy and get another opinion.  This is kind of what I did last time.  I stopped in Burgos to let my tendonitis heal.  Hopefully this blister wouldn't require a stay in Burgos like last time.

Ermita de la Virgen de la Peña above Tosantos.

I'd meant to stop in Tosantos last Camino but didn't.  There is an hermitage here that has a lot of history.  In the afternoon a lady from the village takes people on tours of the small Hermita de la Virgen de la Peña.  The small chapel is built into the side of a cliff.  No one knows how old the chapel is.  The facade of the church was rebuilt in the 1950s and is stamped 1601 but our tour guide, after politely, but firmly, discussing it with the professional pilgrim, insisted that it was much older and they did not know when it had been built.  It sounded like a story to keep the tourists coming in my opinion. (Pictures were not permitted inside the chapel.)

That evening the hospitaleros were preparing dinner.  N_y was there.  She didn't speak Spanish and was a vegetarian.  Wanting to be helpful G_v asked the older hospitalero if there would be a vegetarian option.  The hospitalero ignored her.  Thinking she hadn't been understood she rephrased her question.  At this the hospitalero stared at her and asked her if she knew this song and began humming loudly about six inches from her face.  Thinking he wasn't understanding G_v's question I asked in my slightly better Spanish.  He then stared at me and asked the same question, humming very loudly in my face.  At this point I turned and left the kitchen.  He followed me out of the kitchen and started to lecture me.  He said it was his house and that we would eat whatever was put in front of us.  He said this wasn't a restaurant and if we didn't like the food we could go to the restaurant across the street.  He said pilgrims should not demand and should only thank their host for what they get.  I tried to explain that we were simply asking a question and not demanding anything but, in my flustered state, my Spanish wouldn't come out.  All he needed to do was say "no" and it would have been all done.  It made G_v and I very uncomfortable.

If I'd been more confident I would have packed my bags and walked on to the next town but I was afraid it would be full (the place up ahead had only fourteen beds).  The next day some other pilgrims would tell us that there had been empty beds in the next town.  *sigh*

The meal was supposed to be at 8:00PM but mass started late and was held at 7:45PM and lasted an entire hour (it was officiated over by a German monk who we'd met in Sarrance on the Aragones).  This delayed the meal until near 9:00PM.  Before the meal the hospitalero was a bit repentant and, in a roundabout way, apologized.  He then provided a vegetarian option for N_y and a few others.  Even so, it was weird.

As we ate our meal I talked with an Israeli woman (L_h).  We were talking about the use of electronics and the different ways people walk their own Caminos.  She accused me of being judgemental.  I have to admit, and I admitted to her, that the Camino made me judgemental.  I have tried to get past it but all the electronics being used and the people using taxi services to transport their bags rubbed me the wrong way.  L_h did not agree with me and you could tell she was judging me a bit.  I then said "You tell me that I am being too judgemental but I can't help feeling like I'm being judged."  A strange look came over L_h's face.  She smiled and agreed.  The rest of our talk was less judgmental and more pleasant.

We all cleaned up after the meal.  G_v and I did the dishes and then went straight to bed (more uncomfortable mats).  This had been a weird end of our day.

G_v had stayed here the last Camino and had not had any issues.  She said the older hospitalero hadn't interacted with the pilgrims much.  G_v and I agreed that this had been our first (and only) bad experience on the Camino.  Sadly the bad experience wasn't over yet.  There would be more the next morning.

Pictures can be found in my 2013 Camino de Santiago Google Photos album.

Total Distance on Day 16: 21 km ( 13.05 Miles) Total Distance Walked: 361 km (224.32 Miles)

Approximate Track of the day's hike.

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Camino 2013 - Day 15: Azofra To Grañon

Day 15 was another repeat stage.  This time we stopped along the way to do some sightseeing.

Leaving Azofra at first morning's light.

The first stop was in the town of Cirueña.  Last time this place was a ghost town.  This time is was just half a ghost town.  There were some children playing and the golf course was open.  This may be a sign of the improving economy but, the two young men we passed on the way into town giving away food and drink to the pilgrims for a donation was a sign that things weren't quite back to normal.  I wondered why they didn't price the food and drink but I think they probably get more money from donations - people almost always overpay ... I know I did.

A bicycle pilgrim's sculpture with a water fountain.

We stopped at the golf course clubhouse for some breakfast before continuing on to Santo Domingo de la Calzada.  Last time I just stopped briefly here before continuing on to Grañon with the rest of my Camino family.  This time G_v and I stopped at the cathedral to see the chicken.

Inside the Santo Domingo de la Calzada Cathedral.

The cathedral is famous for a miracle supposedly performed by Santo Domingo.  The story is told on a pamphlet given out by the cathedral.  A boy and his parents were walking to Santiago de Compostela.  In Santo Domingo, the daughter of an inn keeper fell in love with the boy but he did not reciprocate.  In retaliation she framed him for theft and the mayor of the town hung the boy.  His parents continued on the Santiago de Compostela.  On their way back they found their son still hanging and alive - Santo Domingo had brought him back to life.  The parents ran to the Mayor's house to ask for their son to be cut down.  The Mayor, who had sat down for dinner, said "That boy is as alive as these two roast chickens we are about to eat."  Upon saying this the chickens sprouted feathers and beaks and began crowing.  From that day two chickens are kept in the cathedral.  We toured the cathedral.  The rooster crowed while we were inside.  I bought a chicken magnet to add to my collection.

Our destination of the day was one of my favorite albergues.  Some of my fondest memories from my first Camino are from Grañon.  This is where my Camino family had really come together.  I was afraid it would not be the same without a Camino family but I had to stop here anyway.

A few things had changed since last time.  You couldn't go up in the bell tower as you could last time.  The laundry drying was moved from inside the church to a vacant lot a couple blocks away from the albergue.  These are all minor things.  The feel of the place was the same.  Warm, comforting, homey.  Even with this my mood went down hill during the afternoon and early evening.  Maybe it was the lack of a real family or maybe it was just a lack of food.  When the pilgrims gathered to participate in a new ritual - the pilgrims serenade the local bakery owner so that she would donate bread for the communal meal (I'd bought a bag of bakery cookies that afternoon and they were delicious.) - my mood was a bit grey and I stayed away, sitting in the sun in the garden behind the church instead.

The Grañon church/albergue.

The communal meal started and I helped set up the tables.  There were three hospitaleros and one of the volunteers was a chef from Italy.  He prepared an octopus stew that was really good.  The dinner made me feel better and a spark of Camino family camaraderie emerged.  We talked to a very nice Japanese girl (N_y) and her Korean friend.  They had met on the Camino.  He hardly spoke English.  She talked to him in English with a patience of a saint.  It was fun to watch them interact.  We ran into a lot of couples who had met on the Camino and were walking together.

This is also where G_v met her stalker.  He didn't look like he was all there.  His teeth were crooked.  He had starring, piercing eyes.  He was hard to understand when he spoke.  He liked to stare at G_v.  Naturally drove her nuts.

We were getting ready for bed.  The only thing that was missing here was someone playing the piano and/or guitar.  That's when we heard a beautiful voice singing.  It was N_y.  She was playing guitar and singing a Jason Mraz song ("I'm Yours").  Grañon was now complete.  It wasn't quite the same but the underlying feeling was there.  My mood turned content.

The only downside to Grañon were the sleeping pads and no pillows.  They had blankets but only one per bed and I ended up using my one blanket as a pillow.  Fortunately I had my warm  baselayer bottoms.  I'd wondered if I would use them at all this Camino but in Grañon they kept me warm.  I ended up sleeping in my baselayer and my merino wool half-zip and I was just fine - all roasty toasty.  

Pictures can be found in my 2013 Camino de Santiago Google Photos album.

Total Distance on Day 15: 23 km ( 14.29 Miles) Total Distance Walked: 340 km (211.27 Miles)

Approximate Track of the day's hike.

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Camino 2013 - Day 14: Navarrete To Azofra

I don't have much to write about this stage.  It was a tough day but not nearly as bad as the day before.  We walked to Ventosa where we stopped for breakfast.  On the way we met an older couple.  The man was wearing a t-shirt that said "I am not her husband."  (Later on the Camino I would see her wearing a t-shirt that said "I am not his wife.")  They were brother and sister.  Nice people.  I would see them again farther down the way.

A pilgrim sculpture in Navarrete.

Leaving Ventosa the Camino tops a hill.  As we approached the hill we passed a pilgrim with a donkey.  This is the first and only donkey pilgrim I've ever seen though I've heard that they exist.  As a matter of fact I read about one in "Spanish Steps: One Man and His Ass on the Pilgrim Way to Santiago" which I posted about here.

The rest of the stage was an uneventful walk to our destination of Azofra.  This stage and destination were repeats from my last Camino.  The albergue quarters in Azofra are comfortable (no bunk beds) double rooms.  The weather was not as good as last time when it felt like a resort but it was nice enough.

I was pretty wiped when I got to Azofra.  It would be a few days until I fully recovered from my near death experience on the way to Navarrete.  A nap in the afternoon helped me revive.

New markers outside Najera.  The distances are still not accurate.

The padding we put on the heel blister was apparently not enough.  It had gotten bigger and uglier during today's walk.  It was obvious we needed to use better padding and better tape to keep the padding in place.  It would take several trials and errors until we finally settled on a good combination that worked.

During this stage we met an Australian who had a plastic battleax sticking out of his pack - a souvenir from a festival no doubt.  He seemed like a funny guy until we found out that he told the hospitalero that his friend was right behind him so that he could get a double room to himself.  While he paid for both beds, hogging two beds when they have been a bit scarce was not cool.  Fortunately the albergue never filled up.  Still my image of him soured a bit after he told us about what he had done and laughed.

Later that evening G_v and I looked at our itinerary and juggled a few stops to even out the distances we walked each day while sticking to our long range itinerary.  This would eliminate some longer days and make it easier on me.  I was definitely having issues with energy levels.  Not sure if I was doing something differently from last time or if I was just feeling the two extra years on my body.  My training had helped on the Aragones but it wasn't doing sh*t on the Frances.  Well, not exactly sh*t.  It appeared to be helping my recovery each evening and nearly eliminated the often comical pilgrim walk (a slightly bow legged shuffle on soar feet and stiff legs).

I took very few pictures this stage and the pictures above are all I had to add.  Pictures can be found in my 2013 Camino de Santiago Google Photos album.

Total Distance on Day 14: 23 km ( 14.29 Miles) Total Distance Walked: 317 km (196.98 Miles)

Approximate Track of the day's hike.

[Click on map for a larger version]

Camino 2013 - Day 13: Torres Del Rio To Navarrete

Woke up after a good nights sleep to find the blister on my heal deflated.  This was a good thing and it put me in a good mood.  Sadly I didn't do anything to protect the blister before I set out today.

We left right at dawn.  It was a cloudy morning but would clear out later in the day.  Our first stop was Viana.  Along the the way I noticed the Texan's business card on top of a Camino marker.  Apparently it was meant for the Irishman he was racing.

We arrived in Viana in time to see them dismantling the fencing that kept the bulls in order - we'd missed another running of the bulls it appears.  We stopped and I bought some Voltaren (some wonderful anti inflammatory gel) and pilgrim's candy - i.e. Ibuprofen.  I took "vitamin I" every day while I walked but I did take less than I did last time (1,200 mg vs 1,600 mg last time).  I took it mostly before I went to bed and before I started walking in the morning.  I'm sure it helped in speeding my recovery each day.  The amount went down later on when I would forget to take it and I didn't miss it.

The church in Viana.

We stopped at a cafe and bought some breakfast.  As we were leaving we ran into the Irishman.  He was a retired flight attendant who now lived in California.  We started walking together and swapped stories.  I asked him if he was really racing the Texan.  He looked at me and, with a little despair in his voice, said "I'm not racing him.  I'm trying to get away from him!"  We all got a laugh out of that.

In Viana I was feeling pretty good and, wanting to catch back up to our original itinerary, I suggested to G_v that we walk past Logroño where we were going to stop and walk the extra distance to Navarrete instead.  We'd also heard the Texan say that he was going to stop in Logroño so bypassing that city might be a good idea.  Hearing this the Irishman said that he would also walk on to Navarrete to get away from him.

Cool graffiti along the Camino.

We reached Logroño and we separated from the Irishman so we could find some food and he could see the city.  We stopped in a bar and I had a sandwich and soda.  I still felt good at this time so we headed out of town figuring the Irishman would be waiting for us somewhere along the Camino.

We passed a grocery store and G_v went in to buy some supplies.  I kept on going looking for an ATM as I was running out of cash.  By the time I found the ATM and gotten out some cash, I realized I didn't know where the grocery store was.  I walked around a little bit but didn't see the store or G_v (She wandered around looking for me as well).

Not wanting to wander around anymore I decided to continue on figuring she knew where I were going.  I wound my way through the outskirts of the city passing by school campuses along the way and then, as the Camino entered a park I hit "the wall".  The energy drained out of me and my foot started to ache.  My heels had been getting really sore at the end of the day and both of my heels were pounding.  I stopped and smeared some voltaren on the heels.  I also saw that my blister had reinflated and was getting bigger.  Crap.

I continued on but I wasn't going anywhere fast.  I was stopping often.  The wall that I'd hit continued to wail on me for the next ten kilometers.  G_v caught up with me and we walked together ... slowly ... along the trail up to Navarrete.  The Irishman caught up with us as well during one of my many rest stops this day.

The bull, the symbol of Spain.

G_v walked ahead with the Irishman while I dragged my sorry ass along the trail.  Every step was an effort.  I'm sure I was weaving a little as I walked.  I felt terrible ... like I was an extra for the Walking Dead.  We reached Navarrete and headed for the municipal albergue.  We'd thought about going to another albergue for a change since Navarrete was another repeat town but I was in no mood to wander around the town so we went straight for the albergue.

We entered the albergue and who was sitting at the reception table?  The Texan.  I think I heard the Irishman gasp audibly.  All I could manage was an eye roll.  The hospitaleras took the Texan to his bed.  When they got back I sat down at the table.  The two hospitaleras were French.  As I sat there G_v talked with them checking us in.  The hospitaleras, though, had another idea.  They were so happy to meet a francophone that they just wanted to talk, talk, and talk some more.  G_v knew I wasn't doing very well and was trying to move the ladies along.  She was worried about me as I was pale and didn't look very healthy.  I crossed my arms on the table and put my head down.  The hospitaleras were talking about family names and genealogies with G_v.  All I was doing was thinking, very loudly in my head: "Shut the F up and give me an F-ing bed!!!"

G_v finally got the ladies to give us bed assignments (She had also convinced them to give the Irishman a bed in a room away from the Texan's bed) and they led us up to the third floor.  I managed to climb the stairs with my pack.  I dropped my pack, hard, and fell over into the bottom bunk (Thank you G_v for letting me take the bottom bunk).  Oh yeah, the Texan was in the next bunk over - yippee.

I could hardly move.  Everything below the waist ached.  The thought of getting up to take a shower was too hard to contemplate.  I was semi-delirious I think.  I couldn't get comfortable as I laid on the bunk.  My thought were all over the map.  Strangely I never thought of quitting the Camino but not doing the Appalachian Trail ... that I thought about.  I figured I was not up to it, that I was having so much more trouble this time than last Camino (not sure if that was really true or I'd just forgotten how tough my first Camino had been).

G_v shoved cookies she'd bought in a bakery in my face (The cookies were good - this was a big sacrifice for G_v).  I ate them and drank some water.  It took a while but I started to feel better.  The cookies raised my energy level enough  that I got up and took a lukewarm cold shower (the only cold shower of my Camino - I probably needed it to revive me).

After showering G_v looked at my heal blister.  It was purple which meant there was blood in the fluid.  G_v threaded the blister and bandaged it up.  She would be a wonderful blister nurse on this Camino.  I know I could have treated my blisters myself but it was much easier for someone else to bandage it up.  I owe G_v big time.

After showering and blister treating we talked with the Texan.  I have to admit he sounded like a changed man.  He acknowledge that the Camino was harder than he'd expected.  He liked the people and the food.  He said all this in a relatively calm, friendly voice with no show at all.  He even pronounced place names correctly.  It seems seeing people avoid him may have humbled him a bit and calmed him down.  He mentioned being Republican again and I told him that I prefer to leave all the politics and crap at home.  Surprisingly he said no problem and didn't mention it again.  We wouldn't see the Texan again but we did meet someone who did.  Apparently he had returned to his loud ways later on.  I think it may just be a facade he puts up for strangers.  It might be fine in Texas but it wasn't very appropriate anywhere else.

Sometime that afternoon I was getting something out of my pack and saw that, when I dropped my bag on the floor earlier, the shell J-M had given me had smacked against the metal bed frame and had broken in half.  What was it with me and shells this Camino?!? The third shell casualty on the Camino.  J-M was there (the last time we would see him) but I couldn't tell him about his shell - I felt so bad.

That night G_v cooked.  As I waited for the pasta to be done a French mother-daughter couple, having seen me struggle before (I think), offered me the leftovers from their omelette.  It was very tasty as was the pasta G_v made.  I was feeling much better.  I felt even better when G_v pulled out a tube of Principe cookies out of her shopping bag.  This was my first tube of Principes this trip (not including the four cookies I ate at the Madrid airport).  They tasted just like my first Camino.

I went to bed and crashed hard that night.  Today was too long for me but tomorrow would be shorter and I would feel much better.  The Principe cookies would guarantee that.

Pictures can be found in my 2013 Camino de Santiago Google Photos album.

Total Distance on Day 13: 32 km ( 19.88 Miles) Total Distance Walked: 294 km (182.68 Miles)

Approximate Track of the day's hike.

[Click on map for a larger version]

Camino 2013 - Day 12: Villamayor De Monjardín To Torres Del Rio

All the older pilgrims decided to get up before 6:30AM - a whole hour before the break of dawn.  I got my stuff together and went down to the kitchen area and ate a small breakfast of muffins, toast, and orange juice.

It was still dark when we left the albergue shortly after 7:00AM.  I didn't like leaving in the dark but I didn't like waiting around the albergue either.  Fortunately the trail was relatively easy to follow out of town.  I might have pulled out my little LED flashlight for some parts of the trail to make sure we didn't miss an arrow.

Villamayor de Monjardín and Azqueta in the early morning light.

The sun came up twenty minutes after we left and the clouds cleared out and we had a very nice day for walking.  We passed by mowed hay fields and fields of grapes nearly ready for picking.  Last Camino this stretch had felt hot and long.  This time we were walking a shorter stage and it wasn't nearly as bad.  On the way between Los Arcos and Sansol we were passed by a pilgrim on a custom unicycle.  It had handle bars and a larger than normal wheel.  It was pretty cool but you could see he was struggling in the stiff breeze we were walking in today.

We passed by a herdsman who practiced his English on me and others as we passed by this flock of sheep and goats.

Goats and sheep grazing along the Camino.

In Sansol I saw a sign the Camino was adapting to the larger volume of pilgrims.  When I went through here last time the albergue was closed and the town felt like a ghost town.  This time the albergue was reopened, there was a pharmacy, and a bar/store was full of pilgrims.  I would imagine the pilgrims are a good source of income for cash strapped Spain.

Not far from Sansol was our destination, Torres del Rio.  Torres del Rio was the first repeat stop on this Camino (i.e. someplace where I'd stopped on my 2011 Camino).  We skipped the municipal albergue this time.  It was a nice albergue but we wanted to change it up a bit.  We also skipped the new albergue figuring that would be where the older crowd would likely go.  We ended up in a private albergue (Casa Mari) run by a nice elderly lady.

I got ready to take my shower and I found a blister on my left heel.  I never got heal blisters last Camino and I assume it was because my heel was moving up and down in the the low top shoes I was wearing.  It hadn't popped so I decided not to do anything with it.  This would probably be a bad idea - it would get worse over the next few days.

We did our chores and, after putting our clothes in the washer, headed back to the municipal albergue to see who was there.  We sat at a table outside with M_t.  Other people we'd met while walking were there as well.  I_n, a landscape artist/architect from New York.  L_s, a young girl from Vienna, Austria who had started walking from Geneva, Switzerland.  L_a, a very funny Canadian lady walking with her sister.  Everyone had there own little Camino family with them.  That is another change we saw this time.  All the Camino families were small - two to four people - nothing like the ten to fifteen we had last time.

A cute resident of Torres del Rio.

We were sitting in the sun enjoying our drinks and conversation when in came the whirlwind.  He was the Texan.  He was the stereotypical loud, obnoxious American.  You could hear him coming from a distance.  During the time he sat with us we heard his whole life story.  We learned early on that he was a proud Republican.  We learned about him making and loosing fortunes.  We heard about how he live in Panama and Colombia but never learned to speak Spanish (he kept mispronouncing the names of towns and would refuse to listen when people tried to correct him).  We learned about his Colombian wife who married ... and remarried ... him for his money, not his looks.  We heard about how he walked ten miles everyday back home and how he could outwalk everyone at the table.  We learned how he was racing an Irishman even though he said the Camino wasn't a race.  We learned about his heart attacks and his new heart valve.  We learned how he convinced his heart valve manufacturer to sponsor his Camino.  We learned all this multiple times in the first hour.

When the Texan stated to repeat his story for the fourth or fifth time I'd had enough.  I interrupted him and started telling him his life story.  I nearly repeated it word for word.  When I stopped to take a breath someone else at the table jumped in and continued the story without missing a beat.  The Texan shut up.

Soon after that the group dispersed with a promise to get together for dinner later that night.  G_v and I went back to the albergue to take our laundry out of the washer.  When we got there the machine was empty.  We ran around looking for our clothes.  When we finally found them, they were hanging on a line.  We collected some of our dry stuff and G_v found one of her socks missing.  Socks are very important on the Camino.  She was a bit bummed when she couldn't find it.  We were on our bunks when the hospitalera came in and said she had dropped a sock when they were being hung and she was rewashing it since it fell in the dirt.  G_v was relieved.  We thanked the hospitalera for hanging our clothes for us.

We shared our room in the albergue with the Korean couple.  The Korean wife was still not very happy with her husband and was definitely not enjoying the Camino.  Despite this she had a smile on her face and she was nice to talk with.  She was proud of her grown children back home.

That evening we met at the municipal albergue and decided as a group to go to the restaurant connected to the new albergue in town.  Most of the group went to one large table while G_v, M_t, N_r, and I took a smaller table nearby.  We'd taken the smaller table to distance ourselves from the Texan who was with the larger group.  We were perusing the menu when everyone from the other table got up and left (the Texan, without making a sound apparently, had left a few minutes earlier unnoticed).  Later we would find that the waitress had been overwhelmed by the large group and had gotten snippy.  They decided not to put up with her snippyness and went to another restaurant in the town.  We ended up having a good enough meal - a middle of the pack meal I would say.

After dinner N_r told us she was going to leave the Frances and head to the Camino del Norte (M_t was leaving for home at the next big town because he had less time).  The Frances was turning out to be a bit too crowded for her and, since she had done the Camino just last year in 2012, it was too familiar and not new enough.  We agreed to meet each other in front of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela at noon on the 22nd of October.  Looking back using twenty-twenty hindsight, G_v and I should have gone with her.  It just didn't occur to me at the time.

Pictures can be found in my 2013 Camino de Santiago Google Photos album.

Total Distance on Day 12: 19 km ( 11.79 Miles) Total Distance Walked: 262 km (162.78 Miles)

Approximate Track of the day's hike.

[Click on map for a larger version]